War of the Fathers: War of the Fathers Universe: Volumes One - Three Box Set (War of the Fathers Series Box Set Book 1)

by Dan Decker

  “He’ll kill you.”

  It looked as though Isak was going to say something, but then he shook his head and scowled. “We can both agree you need to leave.”

  Growling, Kura put her hand back on the trigger and lunged to her knees. She shot the Hunwei and watched long enough to make sure the blast hit its mark before she stood. “I’m warning you. Walk away. Let this go.”

  Isak sat up. “Go.”

  Turning her back, Kura stalked away, feeling his eyes on her back as she moved. When Billy poked his head out from behind the cart, she whacked him in the face with the butt of the blaster. He let out a yelp that might have been satisfying if she wouldn't have been so angry with Isak.

  “Don't ever touch me again,” she said, pleased at how emotionless her voice sounded.

  Billy looked up as he held his nose, blood running out from his hand and dripping down his arm. On the other hand, maybe it did feel a little good to see the sniveling man bleed.

  Chapter 27

  Adar rolled to his feet and kicked away the turncoat’s blaster from where the man’s body had fallen. It skidded across the floor until it came to a stop.

  Why had the weapon worked for the turncoat but not for him?

  Adar had pulled the trigger and felt it stop at the point where it should have fired, yet nothing had happened.

  It had to be the armor, somehow the weapon was reloaded or reactivated when the turncoat had picked it up. The last moments before Adar had killed the turncoat played again in his mind, his heart still pounding in his chest as he thought it through. The turncoat hadn’t done anything special. All he’d done was pick up the blaster, point, and shoot.

  Adar thought of the flash of light he’d seen yesterday when a turncoat had picked up a blaster.

  The same thing might have occurred here, but Adar had been too busy to notice it. The turncoat had even had a smirk on his face as if he knew something Adar didn’t.

  That was true, Adar thought. I’m sure he knew a lot of things that I don’t. He winced, trying to ignore the searing pain on the back of his head from the shot that had almost killed him earlier. He touched it and wasn’t surprised to discover that most of his hair back there was gone. He had never thought of himself as handsome, so if it never grew back, he would survive.

  Adar examined the turncoat’s wound as he knelt beside the body with his own smaller blaster pointed at the turncoat’s head just in case.

  Just like the Hunwei corpse he’d looked at earlier, there was a ring of the silver metal around the outside of the wound. It had not moved to cover it up.

  When he touched the metal, he was surprised it was cool to the touch. That was strange, he would have expected it to at least be warm as it was right up against the body of the man that had just died.

  After several more seconds had passed while Adar debated whether it was safe to turn his back on the corpse, he went to the blaster he’d kicked away from the fallen turncoat.

  Never hurts to make sure. He aimed the weapon at the turncoat’s chest and fired. The blaster worked, just the same as it had for the turncoat. He inspected the back of the blaster and the grip. He also examined the turncoat’s gauntlets, wondering again if something had happened when the man had picked up the weapon. He wasn’t certain what he was looking for, but it seemed the connection would most likely be found where there had been contact between the man and the weapon.

  That was also where he’d seen the flash of light.

  Blaster fire from outside of the ship drew his attention. The hole in the ship’s door was still clear, which he found surprising as he remembered how close a blast had come to hitting him just before he’d entered. Perhaps the Hunwei or turncoat that had fired at him had seen the turncoat follow after and assumed Adar didn’t have long to live.

  Whatever the reason, he was glad for it and would take advantage of it.

  The blaster fire disappeared when it was engulfed by a roaring sound. That was odd, he was certain that all of the other ships had departed. He set down the blaster and pulled out one of the smaller ones. It was easier to maneuver within the compressed space.

  When he stepped out of the makeshift hole in the door of the ship, he discovered another Hunwei ship was descending. This wasn’t like all the other ships that had crashed into the city. It was coming straight down, in the same fashion they typically used to leave.

  Confound it all. He figured it would take another minute or two for the ship to land and thought of the large blaster he’d left hanging up on the wall in the command center.

  Cold sharp metal touched his skin. Without thinking about it, he stepped back and slapped it away, bringing up the small blaster as he did. He wasn’t surprised to see that he was looking at Erro. The fire from the engines of the descending ship gleamed in Erro’s eyes.

  A black smudge crossed the lad’s face, and his clothing was even dirtier than it had been last time Adar had seen him. The lines around Erro’s eyes plainly gave evidence of an evening spent with little sleep.

  Melyah! I’m not much better. The whole night passed while I was making a mess of things.

  Movement came from around the side of the ship as Neare came towards them.

  Adar could just make out the scowl on the man’s lips as he shouted to make himself heard over the roar of the ship.

  “How many times do I need to spare your life before you decide it’s a waste of time to try to kill me?” Adar studied Erro. “It almost seems that you want me to kill you.”

  “Where is Jorad?”

  Adar had missed it before, but now it was plain as day. The wild look in Erro’s eyes made Adar reconsider his words. When a man got past the point of being able to think rationally, there wasn’t much to be done about it.

  Neare looked up at the ship and swallowed as he got closer. Adar could almost hear Neare thinking that any sane man would be running the other way. Well that’s the problem, isn’t it? Your son here has lost his wits.

  “Why?” Adar asked. “So he can kill you instead? You’re too blind to see it, but my son spared you.”

  Erro scowled. “I had him at the point of a sword. He was mine.”

  “Then why didn’t you do it? Why isn’t Jorad lying next to Gorew’s body?”

  “She beguiled me!” The volume of his shout was lost in a roar of the ship’s engines.

  When the ship touched down, Adar could feel the vibration as it settled onto the ground. “Get in here, both of you! Or we’re all dead.”

  A surprised look crossed Erro’s face, and he looked back just as Neare wrapped his hands around Erro’s arms and forced the sword down. Erro put up a struggle, but it didn’t gain him anything. Was he weak because he was tired or was Neare just that much stronger?

  “He had one of those infernal weapons aimed at your chest!” Neare’s yell was also lost in the noise. He ripped Erro’s sword away from him and pushed him forward into the ship. “Jorad let you go.”

  “Get in!” Adar whipped his blaster over to the ship as it landed, trusting Neare to handle his son. The other ship’s door wasn’t open yet, but several turncoats and a handful of Hunwei were coming out to meet it. Neare shoved Erro towards the door, and they both ducked in.

  A couple of Hunwei headed towards Adar’s ship. One pointed while the other brought up his blaster. Adar fired off a shot first, but it went high.

  “Confound it!” He dove inside as a blast collided with the side of the ship. He looked up expecting to see a hole where the blast had hit, but there was nothing.

  A smile crossed his face as he got to his feet. He’d forgotten that several of the shots he’d taken at a ship yesterday afternoon hadn’t done any damage. This was an advantage he could use. From Adar’s vantage point, he could see where the blast had connected with the ship, and nothing happened to the ship. It was as if the outside wall had just absorbed it.

  A laugh escaped Adar’s lips that drew a glare from Neare as Erro tripped on the grate and stumbled over.

>   Neare appeared to be on the verge of saying something, but another blast hit the outside of the ship. He muttered something about living on borrowed time.

  Adar swung back to the hole and fired. This shot went high as well. Hadn’t he been thinking earlier that these weapons were easier to use than a sword or a bow and arrow? It now seemed like he couldn’t come within five feet of the approaching Hunwei.

  He moved back to the safety of the ship’s wall and examined the blaster in his hands. While this smaller weapon was easier to maneuver with, it was a great deal more difficult to aim. He had not had this kind of trouble shooting a regular sized blaster.

  He fired several more times and didn’t come any closer to hitting the Hunwei.

  Movement at the base of the tower drew his eyes, and he was surprised to see a large group of Hunwei milling around. A cold chill grabbed at his heart. Had they figured out that the tower was what had killed all of their comrades?

  A blast hit the lip of the hole just above his head and snatched his attention away from the tower. Part of the blast was absorbed, but another part continued into the hold and burned a hole in a small section of the far wall.

  “Get back.” Adar moved so that he was out of view of the Hunwei. They were within a stone’s throw of the door. He turned to the others. “Hide.”

  Neare snatched up the blaster Adar had been examining earlier and dragged Erro behind the box. The man had more instincts for self-preservation than did his son. Adar opened his mouth, intending to tell Neare about the button in the front, but stopped at the last moment. The Hunwei were too close.

  After examining the hold, he moved back into an area that was parallel to the hole in the door. He found a nook in the wall that would keep him out of view until the Hunwei entered into the ship.

  The people inside the large box pounded and shouted. With everything else that had been going on, the noise of it had faded from his mind. Even though the box had been put in place by the turncoats or the Hunwei, there was a chance that the pair of Hunwei headed towards the ship weren’t aware of what was in it, and it might prove to be a brief distraction.

  In any event, they should assume that Adar had either hid behind the far side of the box or gone up the ladder.

  When the first Hunwei showed at the door, Adar waited as the large Hunwei peeked his head in and looked around. The face shield was flipped up, and there were large drops of water running down the invisible protective shield that kept water from touching the creature’s face. It must have just started to rain again because it had been dry outside last Adar looked.

  Adar held his breath and didn’t yet move fully back into the nook.

  The Hunwei waited at the door, with his head poking in and the rest of his body outside. He took in the metal box but didn’t stop to dwell on it. Adar pushed back as the Hunwei looked his way. He counted his heartbeats as sweat dripped down his back, wetting his shirt.

  During the last day, he’d been so wet he’d been accustomed to the feeling. When he’d come to earlier, he hadn’t even recognized that he was much dryer. The sweat had been building up again, and the back of his shirt now clung to his back. He let out a breath as quietly as he could, straining his ears to listen to what was happening.

  There were heavy footsteps on the floor. He was tempted to look again but decided against it. He would wait until he heard where the footsteps were going before he made another move.

  He swapped his blaster to the other hand and wiped his sweaty palm on his pants. When he’d killed the turncoat with this weapon, he’d been within striking distance. He wasn’t about to take any unnecessary shots.

  The best thing to do is to close the distance. If I do that, it won’t matter how terrible my aim is with this weapon.

  He grasped the blaster, wrapping one hand around the back and using the other to stabilize the much shorter barrel. When another set of boots clanked on the grated floor, he assumed that both of the Hunwei were now inside.

  He wrapped his finger around the trigger and made sure his hand pressed the long button on the back of the weapon. He took a deep breath and released it.

  When he’d been firing the blaster earlier, he hadn’t even thought about the button. It was a good thing his hand naturally pressed it. It was an oddly intricate design when compared to the size of the Hunwei. Perhaps they had been made for the turncoats.

  He stepped forward, whipping up his blaster, prepared to fire.

  One of the Hunwei was several feet away from the nook where Adar had been hiding. He cringed that his hiding place had been discovered so easily, even though he had planned and prepared for this outcome.

  The Hunwei’s blaster was up but pointed to the side, the monster must have assumed that Adar was hidden more towards the middle of the nook.

  As Adar fired his weapon, the Hunwei tried to correct the mistake but a bloody blue hole formed in beast’s considerable chest. The Hunwei did manage to fire a blast, it missed Adar by mere inches. Without flinching, Adar stepped forward and shouldered the screeching Hunwei so that he toppled over onto his back.

  The other Hunwei was gone.

  Did he even come in? Adar wondered, trying to recall if he’d seen the other Hunwei in the background as he stepped out.

  He couldn’t remember. Having a large ten-foot tall creature bearing down on him had made it impossible to notice anything else.

  When he’d heard the noise the boots had been making on the floor, he had assumed they were both here, but he could have been mistaken. If the Hunwei had come inside, there was only one place it could be.

  So which is it? Is he outside waiting to shoot me or is he around the corner waiting for me to show my face?

  He studied the hole in the door and turned his attention to the box, hoping the Hunwei would make a sound to give him some guidance.

  The dying Hunwei behind him coughed. It almost sounded human, except it was too low.

  Growling under his breath, Adar guessed the other Hunwei had come in and was in front of the box, up close so that he could hide. It was a pity there hadn’t been time for Adar to show Neare how to use the blaster. That would make what he was about to do a lot easier.

  “Neare,” Adar called out. The Hunwei already knew where Adar was. What was the harm in trying to coordinate a distraction? “Don’t speak, just listen. One Hunwei is down, but there is another. I think it's between you and me on the other side of this box. I want you to distract it by throwing something. When you do, I’m going to come around the corner and kill it.”

  He paused, keeping his blaster trained on the corner, half-expecting the creature to come charging around the bend. When nothing happened, he also checked the hole in the door of the ship. It was still clear. Wherever this creature was, he was keeping his cool. The captives in the box were still banging on it, but the yelling had died down.

  “Just throw it so it hits the far wall.”

  He waited, wondering if Neare was going to do as he said. He was on the verge of giving up when he heard a dull thud.

  When Adar turned the corner he was so wound up he almost fired off a shot, even though the Hunwei wasn’t there. Cursing, he went to the hole in the door expecting to see a blaster pointed in his direction.

  There was nothing there either.

  He spun around the room, afraid he was missing something. Neare looked out from his hiding spot between the box and the wall.

  Adar cringed when he spotted his black tipped Ou Qui dagger on the far side of the hold, figuring that was what Neare had tossed to create a distraction. The weapon better not have been damaged. It would be a sore loss. Adar came around so he could see down Neare’s side of the box to confirm the Hunwei was indeed not there.

  Erro was there holding one of the blasters, pale with tears streaming down his face.

  Why had the captives inside the box quieted down but continued to pound? Adar wondered. They wouldn’t have all stopping yelling.

  He looked at the top of the box just
as the Hunwei sat up, pointing his blaster down at Erro.

  For half a heartbeat Adar considered letting the Hunwei take the shot. It would have been so much easier to just watch his problem with Erro disappear.

  “Erro, move!” Adar aimed low and yanked on the trigger.

  The shot ripped through the side of the Hunwei and out the other, almost searing the creature in half at the abdomen. Erro jumped—reminding Adar of a rabbit—and sprung forward.

  The Hunwei’s blast burned through the air above where Erro had been, putting another hole in the ship.

  Neare spun around as the Hunwei toppled over the side and crashed to the floor. The body of the beast fell on top of Adar’s sword and his remaining blasters.

  Erro hunched over and vomited. “Bleeding Melyah. Bleeding Melyah. Bleeding Melyah.”

  Neare laid an arm over the back of his son. “It’s okay. We’re going to be fine.” He looked at Adar, his face as pale as Erro’s had been. “How many times am I going to have to thank you for saving his life?”

  “At least one more.” Adar picked up his Ou Qui dagger and pulled out his sword from under the Hunwei. His other daggers were nearby. While he strapped on his sword and put away his daggers, he stared at Neare, silently warning the man not to speak of where he hid the daggers in his boots.

  Neare cleared his throat and looked away uncomfortably. Afterward, Adar went to the box. The thumping and yelling inside had started up again. He could also make out something else.

  A baby was crying.

  He walked around the outside perimeter of the container, wondering if he would have to shoot his way into this as well.

  When he walked back to the side of the box that faced the nook, he was glad to find a door. He hadn’t noticed it earlier because his attention had been elsewhere.

  Just fighting for my life was all.

  The door was a crude construction, considering the advanced technology he’d seen on the ship, and was kept in place by several slats of wood that had been slid through metal hooks on either side.

  When he removed the slats and swung the door open, the first face he saw was that of Helda. Her excitement turned to a scowl, and she took several steps back. Slashes in the roof of the box allowed in light. The container made Adar think of a bullpen. Was that all they were to the Hunwei? Cattle?